The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance. -Herodotus

Jan 4, 2015

Ragbag Headliners

Court Strikes Down Drug Tests for Florida Welfare Applicants

A federal appeals court [recently] struck down a 2011 Florida law requiring drug tests for people seeking welfare benefits even if they are not suspected of drug use, a measure pushed by Gov. Rick Scott in his first term in office.

The three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, ruled that the law, one of the strictest in the country, was an unreasonable search because Florida officials had failed to show a “substantial need” to test all people who applied for welfare benefits. Applicants were required to submit to urine tests, a measure that Mr. Scott said would protect children of welfare applicants by ensuring that their parents were not buying and using drugs.

“The state has not demonstrated a more prevalent, unique or different drug problem among TANF applicants than in the general population,” the panel said in its unanimous decision, using an acronym for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Eleven states have passed laws to mandate drug testing since 2011, but most of those differ from Florida’s because they require testing only if drug use is suspected. After the Florida Legislature approved its law, Georgia followed suit. A similar measure was ruled unconstitutional in 2003 by a Michigan Court of Appeals.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida sued the state on behalf of a welfare applicant, Luis Lebron, a Navy veteran and single father, shortly after the law took effect in 2011. A federal judge ruled it unconstitutional in 2013, but Florida appealed.

“The court has once again confirmed what we argued all along: that the state of Florida cannot treat an entire class of people like suspected criminals simply because they’ve asked the state for temporary assistance,” said Maria Kayanan, the associate legal director of the Florida A.C.L.U.

From July through October 2011 — the four months when testing took place in Florida before a federal injunction — 2.6 percent of the state’s applicants for cash assistance, or 108 of 4,086, failed the drug test, according to figures from the state obtained by the group. The most common reason was marijuana use. Another 40 applicants did not go through with the testing.

Because the Florida law required that applicants who passed the test be reimbursed for the cost, an average of $30, the cost to the state was $118,140. This was more than would have been paid in benefits to the people who failed the test. –NY Times